This trope is under discussion
in the Trope Repair Shop.
"Peter Parker was just an attractive, intelligent, likable, athletic, well-dressed teenage loser."
Similar to Hollywood Homely, and a very frequent protagonist of High School shows, this is when a character who is smart, funny, fashionable and good looking is portrayed as being much less popular than they would be in real life, to the point of threatening Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Done deliberately to limit the circle of friends/cast as much as possible, thereby erasing the hassle of writing multiple, varying characterizations, while at the same time making the main character likable to the viewer. If this character is female, she is frequently a target of the Alpha Bitch. If this character is male, he is often the target of the Big Jerk on Campus, the Jerk Jock and/or The Bully.
This often leads up to a big payoff, when the Unconvincingly Unpopular Character is briefly given a moment when they realize that more people do, in fact, like them more than they thought (usually when they are unexpectedly honoured at some manner of ceremony, such as a graduation). It's not explained why those honouring didn't demonstrate this in some way earlier, (the few times it is, it's often explained as the rest of the student body fearing the Alpha Bitch, Jerk Jock, or other Big Man on Campus so much, they didn't want to befriend the Unconvincingly Unpopular Character and become a target of their fury) but it often comes in the form of a sweet gesture.
Sometimes the Unconvincingly Unpopular Character is briefly given a moment when they realize that more people do, in fact, like them more than they thought (usually when they are unexpectedly honoured at some manner of ceremony, such as a graduation). It's not explained why those honouring didn't demonstrate this in some way earlier, (the few times it is, it's often explained as the rest of the student body fearing the Alpha Bitch, Jerk Jock, or other Big Man on Campus so much, they didn't want to befriend the Cool Loser and become a target of their fury) but it often comes in the form of a sweet gesture.
A very common signal of the Unconvincingly Unpopular Character will often involve being a member of the school paper. This is often seen as a gray area, doesn't carry the obvious negative "nerd" connotations of the Chess Club or the Mathletes, but also isn't seen as "cool" as sports teams or cheerleading.
Often overlaps with This Loser Is You. See also Loners Are Freaks. An Informed Loner is basically this, except they supposedly don't even want friends. See also Wasted Beauty, where it is acknowledged that the character could be popular (because they're hot), but they have an "uncool" side that prevents them from being so.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime and Manga
- Great Teacher Onizuka: Eikichi Onizuka is pretty cool and a pretty big loser at the same time. He used to be in a gang, he rides a motorcycle, he breaks things... but he's never had a girlfriend, cosplays during class, and is so broke he doesn't even know who's on the 10,000 yen bill.
- Hoshin Engi: Taikobo is an adorable, hilarious, good-hearted, young-looking immortal that's insanely smart, and manages to come up with genius tactics to save the day. Yet absolutely no halfway decent woman has any romantic interest in him throughout the entire series... save for a hideous Gonk that disgusts everyone (including and especially him). Sure, he's a Celibate Hero that has no interest in romance... but it's not like he's always announcing it and letting everyone know, and there's no real reason why no one is interested in him.
- Iris Zero: Toru Mizushima is quite handsome, very smart and good-hearted, yet is constantly mistreated due to his Iris Zero status. You'd think that his ability to figure things out despite not having Iris would impress people, rather than make him a target for bullies. It may be justified by his “Minimal Exposure” policy, which means he tries to stand out as little as possible.
- Maken-ki!: There's nothing wrong with Usui, other than the fact he's a pervert with a one-track mind. Otherwise, he's reasonably good-looking, fairly intelligent, and really not that bad a guy. So it's a wonder to him how Takeru, who's nearly the exact oppositenote , has better luck with girls than he does.
- Medaka Box: Despite being the childhood friend of the very popular titular character, Zenkichi Hitoyoshi is generally acknowledged as just that, despite being friendly, sociable, and willing to help others. This is contrasted with Akune, the Prince of Judo.
- Sailor Moon: Minako seems to be a victim of this; unlike the other girls she lacks any other obvious traits that would make her unpopular. It's likely The Artifact from working solo in her own manga to being retrofitted into the new storyline, as in that series her tomboyish act tended to scare away boys and gross out the other girls.
- In Tiger & Bunny, Kotetsu T. Kaburagi/Wild Tiger is pretty much HeroTV's designated Butt-Monkey despite being a handsome, selfless, funny, and deceptively competent superhero with impressive physical abilities both powered and unpowered. A lot of it has to do with the fact that he's a Boring, but Practical old-school hero who only cares about doing good in a world where superheroics have been turned into a reality TV show and mugging for the camera and looking cool for the audience is as important as actually fighting crime. Compare him to Sky High, who has about as much heroic drive as Kotetsu does but also knows how to maintain his self-image as a role model and thus is HeroTV's most popular "King of Heroes."
- Yu-Gi-Oh! has Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) after his Heel–Face Turn. He's fairly attractive, friendly, and a pretty badass duelist, and yet is constantly the target of bullying and mean-spirited jokes from professional duelists and arc enemies, Kaiba, and even (until his Heel–Face Turn) Honda (Tristan Taylor).
- This was more justified in the manga, where his father is an alcoholic deadbeat and he himself was well-known to have hung out with a legitimately criminal gang.
- It's implied that some part of being the target of mean-spirited jokes is his reliance on luck as part of his dueling strategy, at least to those like Kaiba.
Comic Books
- Spider-Man: Peter Parker is (to the reader) a handsome, highly intelligent, funny guy who used to be Happily Married to a stunning red-haired supermodel, and now is a relatively successful freelance photographer (he was retconned to have won a pulitzer for his picture taking skills). In real life, he'd be amazingly popular. In Marvel Universe Manhattan, though, he's all but completely ostracized from his peers because...well...he's Peter Parker. Though it's more true, to varying degrees, in adaptations like Ultimate Spider-Man and various animated series that focus on his highschool life; in the original comics, he was only really ostracized when he was a teenager, and during that time he was a very shy kid prone to glaring angrily at the In-Crowd while muttering how they'll all learn one day. Once he grew up and actually became handsome and funny, did he get friends. It's only after One More Day that he became this, when it removed his marriage, his career, and his social skills and had everyone treat him like crap for no apparent reason. Then it's changed by the new Big Time era, complete with his alter ego Spider-Man beginning to become a trusted and respected hero amongst New York.
- In the X-Men: Evolution tie in comics, written by Devin Grayson, in that twice people refer to the Xavier kids as freaks or make a deal about how 'weird' they are...despite the fact that Jean is shown to be VERY popular in the actual TV series, and Scott and Kurt, while not shown as particularly popular, are shown to be very good at making girls dig them. While it's once mentioned that Jean is considered 'Ok', and someone makes reference to having a crush on Scott, it really comes off as weird that it's made into a minor plot point despite it never coming up in the series... until The Reveal, but the comics are based before that happening.
- Momses from Minimonsters is considered the most handsome guy in Frank's gang, and is considered a loser only by Morty's gang... Who are much bigger losers than they.
Fan Works
- Persona EG: The Main Six, despite all of them being beautiful, nice and in prestigious positions (Rainbow Dash is captain of the soccer team, Rarity runs her own business, etc), everyone talks behind their backs and spread terrible rumors about them.
- The main characters in Ask The Main Four are not very popular in school due to the notorious schemes that they are often associated with.
- History's Strongest Shinobi: Due to Naruto having a loud, blunt and "in your face" personality and Kenichi being a overly neurotic wreck, the two aren't held in high regard. Over time however, people in-universe note how, when you spend more than five minutes with them, they fall more in to this trope considering Kenichi is practically joined to the hip of one the hottest girls in school, Naruto has incredible people skills and both are loyal friends and don't abuse their fighting skills for profit (unlike every one else in their school).
- The Simpsons: Team L.A.S.H.: Anastasia Burns is beautiful, smart, fashionable, charismatic, good at gymnastics, and most importantly, the wealthiest student at Springfield Elementary. In spite of that, the popular girls at Springfield Elementary all dislike her, and she doesn’t seem to have many friends. The main factor that drives people away from her seems to be how out-of-touch she is with modern trends.
Film — Animated
- Arthur from Shrek the Third seems fairly normal, maybe a bit introverted, but he's picked on by everyone, including the stereotypical DnD nerds.
- In spite of the fact that he's an outcast that was clearly Born in the Wrong Century, Burger-Beard from The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water owns an awesome-looking pirate ship, which is pimped-out with wheels and a ton of cannons on it.
- Belle from Beauty and the Beast is considered the most beautiful girl in the village by the townspeople, is very friendly and outgoing to everyone she meets, and has the town hero Gaston interested in her, so she would definitely be well-liked by modern day standards. Despite that, she is pretty much outcasted by most of her village due to her love of books and has trouble making friends outside her eccentric father.
- Ian Lightfoot from Onward is an Ink-Suit Actor of Tom Holland and an overall likable guy yet starts out with no friends at school, though this has less to do with being perceived as a "loser" and more because of shyness and embarrassment around his nerdy brother. When he does work up the courage to invite some classmates to his birthday party, they show interest.
- In Minions: The Rise of Gru, Gru as a child didn't seem to be very popular at his school, despite being a charismatic kid who owned a lot of cool gadgets such as a flying motorcycle.
- The Addams Family (2019) has Parker Needler. She's a bullied girl who is (forced to be) dressed preppy by her mother Margaux, a real estate developer, blogs, and performs a dance routine in front of town citizens.
Film — Live-Action
- Marty McFly from Back to the Future is unabashedly an overblown Totally Radical teenager who skateboards to school, plays lead guitar in a band, and has a caring and attractive girlfriend, but is also a put-upon social outcast with poor self-confidence who's picked on by authority figures and bullies. At the same time. And even then, he refuses to be victimized by bullies and is perfectly able to fight back.
- In The Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield was criticized for making Peter Parker too cool. Even before getting his powers, he's shown to be attractive, athletic, smart, and friendly, making it hard to buy that he's a friendless loser.
- In Rebel Without a Cause, our hero is an alienated High School outcast. He's played by the '50s rebel icon James Dean (or rather, that film made him a '50s rebel icon).
- Booger from Revenge of the Nerds is a charismatic and rebellious Deadpan Snarker who doesn't really exhibit any traits that justify his status as a nerd. He is unhygenic and a bit of a Jerkass, but you'd think that those traits would get him grouped up with an entirely different kind of outcast.
- Michael Cera and Jonah Hill's characters in Superbad. An attractive girl clearly has the hots for Cera's character, and they're both invited to the hip party at the end, yet they're under the impression that they need to bring a ton of booze for any of the girls to get with them. It's implied that many students do like Evan (Cera's character), but don't hang out with him because of Seth (Hill), who is considered by people to be an immature Jerkass.
- Amit from Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, attractive, lovely... makes no sense.
- Pretty in Pink: Andie is a poverty-stricken outsider picked on by the cool kids for being poor. She's played by Molly Ringwald, the same actress who plays a rich popular girl in The Breakfast Club.
- Kal Ho Naa Ho's Rohit Patil, who happens to be rich and good-looking (as well as funny and sensitive), is introduced as unsuccessfully flirting with three different woman.
- Morris "Mud" Himmel in Camp Nowhere, though most of it was because of his lack of self-confidence.
- Freddy in School of Rock seems to be openly despised by the rest of his class but it's likely justified in that he's a wannabe tough guy and the only "cool kid" in a classroom full of nerds.
- Bianca from The Duff is intelligent and good-looking — and the movie doesn't try to kid the audience she's not — and isn't even necessarily unpopular. In an exploration of the trope, she is only considered to a loser by comparison to her more conventionally attractive popular friends, hence she is desginated (by the the student body, not her friends) the "duff" ("dumb, ugly, fat friend") of the group.
- X-Men: Apocalypse: In a moment of self-deprecation, Quicksilver calls himself a "total loser," and the rest of the X-Men chuckle with him (and not at him). They barely know Peter, but they are already beginning to like him.
- This crops up frequently in the roles of Hailee Steinfeld, with films such as The Edge of Seventeen and Bumblebee having her play a dorky young woman who has few to no friends.
- Labyrinth: Sarah appears to have no friends, and goes on no dates, in spite of looking like Jennifer Connelly. However, the novelization notes she has at least one school chum, and her interest in fantasy worlds could well be blinding her to what she could be enjoying in the real one. Being depressed over her mother leaving the family has probably also contributed to her isolation.
- The Internship: Stuart and Neha are smart and attractive 21-year-olds with the academic qualifications to land an internship at Google, but are nonetheless bunched with the outcasts in Team Lyle. In Stuart's case, it's at least somewhat justified given how anti-social he is and when everyone's asked to form teams, he's shown to be looking at his phone the whole time and doesn't even bother trying to find teammates, but Neha, in spite of her various perverted interests, would probably be popular due to her friendly and outgoing personality.
Literature
- Perry Mason. His only admirer is his secretary, Della Street. This one especially boggles the mind, considering that he's an incredibly rich, handsome, powerful, world famous lawyer that is well known for being on the side of justice. He has hundreds of attractive, young female clients, who go through life and death situations with him, where he's always there to comfort and save them in their time of need. Yet none of them ever fall for him. If they flirt with him, it's always because they're just trying to manipulate or trick him. Apparently, no woman during those days wanted to chase and marry an insanely rich, prominent lawyer. Luckily he has Paul.
- Before I Fall: Kent McFuller is one of the few people who isn't in awe of the popular girls and can see the titular character Sam for who she really is underneath. He seems a lot happier than the popular kids and is well-liked enough to throw his Wild Teen Party that becomes an important event in the book.
- Janiine Farehouse of Dinoverse is a fairly severe version of this. Bullies hate her - she's poor in a rich school, has her own fashion sense, and seems to be completely unaffected by anything they say or do. Actually, she intimidates them. And everyone else, including the people who like her. Between the intimidation factor and other kids not wanting to get on the bad side of the Alpha Bitch, she has no friends at all, but is admired by many, including the bullies. They sense that she has integrity.
Live-Action TV
- 8 Simple Rules: Kerry is intelligent, artistic and attractive - a bit snarky perhaps, but for some, that's part of the charm. Still, she's generally portrayed as less desirable than her older sister Bridget. Justified in the first season because she's moody and condescending as well as being a little bitchy. She actually becomes more popular than her sister at the start of season 2.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Buffy, although she was initially accepted by the in-crowd before her weird behavior, such as accidentally pulling a stake on Cordelia, led them to disowning her. In the end, she only really had two friends at school - Xander and Willow (and Cordelia and Oz by extension when they were dating Xander and Willow). In "The Prom", however, Buffy receives a special Class Protector award for saving the other students' lives on a regular basis. At her previous high school in L.A. she was a very popular cheerleader, May Queen and Lovable Alpha Bitch herself, before she was called as the Slayer. At Sunnydale High, the fact that she sometimes has to cut classes and is first on the scene whenever something strange or violent happens leads to her being seen as a delinquent. Despite this, she is still beautiful and athletic after all, so several boys do either ask her out or wish they were brave enough to.
- Xander is attractive, friendly and funny, but has no friends except Willow and Buffy and everyone looks down on him because he lacks any shred of confidence in himself (he gets better). Only the science geeks are lower on the social ladder. Even when he starts dating head cheerleader Cordelia, it results in her losing social status rather than him gaining it.
- Chuck:
- Chuck Bartowski is a good-looking, smart, funny, and kind-hearted guy whom Casey even describes as a "social butterfly" in one episode, he's definitely one of the most socially-functional main characters. Yet he doesn't believe a woman like Sarah would genuinely be attracted to him. Of course it doesn't help that Chuck is frequently Overshadowed by Awesome—no really, that's what they actually call his sister's boyfriend Devon—and professional spies like Bryce, Cole and Shaw.
- Morgan. After Chuck must devote more of his life to the spy game, it's Morgan who keeps the Buy More running smoothly, first as assistant manager then as manager. He has the very cute Anna Wu as a girlfriend for most of seasons 1 and 2, then even manages to bag Carina by the third season, to the point she's infatuated with him in season four. He also develops a solid romantic relationship with Casey's quite beautiful daughter Alex, has Bo Derek gunning for him in season 5 (though it's largely because he has the Intersect and is a respected member of Team Bartowski. You wouldn't think it because of the way his coworkers talk down to him or outright revolt against his authority as assistant manager/manager.
- Dawson's Creek: Almost all of the attractive major characters are depicted as being stereotypically uncool, particularly the beautiful and intelligent Joey.
- Degrassi: The Next Generation: Mia Jones is the would-be spicy cheerleader but being a teen mother stands in the way until she becomes a model.
- Friends: Despite his neuroses and social awkwardness, Chandler is smart, witty, good-looking, has a good job, and is generally a Nice Guy. But he's still treated like a loser, is unsuccessful with women, and is considered lucky to get a woman like Monica who apparently "could do better than him" (according to Rachel and Phoebe, at least).
- Glee:
- Everyone in the Glee Club is automatically unpopular for being part of it, even though three of them are cheerleaders and several of them are on the football team.
- As of season two the entire club is/has been on the cheerleading/football team or is dating somebody who is. Logically, these are the most popular people in school. It makes the whole "We're all misfits!!" thing hard to swallow.
- In one episode, the entire football team temporarily joins the Glee club, only to have the hockey team throw slushies at them.
- iCarly: Freddie is good-looking and is best friends with the popular Carly, but is still treated as a loser by most of the cast.
- Lizzie McGuire: The title character and her friends are considered losers. Roger Ebert makes a crack at this trope's expense, wonder how a girl whose smile "shines brighter than all the stars in the sky" could be unpopular.
- Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide: Ned is cute, clever, friendly, open towards everyone and gives great tips, but he isn't very popular.
- The O.C.: Taylor Townsend, a stunning, whip smart, witty young lady who is so unpopular she is reduced to following around Seth (and Summer) for want of a friend.
- Popular: Samantha, despite being gorgeous and smart, was unpopular. A snarky recapper on Television Without Pity actually pointed out that for all her supposed outsiderness Sam generally had more stylized hairstyles and make up than the actually popular Brooke, who looked like she just ran a comb through her hair every morning.
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Billy was initially depicted as a nerdy dork and target of bullies despite being vey good looking, in incredible physical shape, having multiple girls interested in him over the course of the series and having several close friends including the most popular girl in school.
- Seinfeld: Completely parodied in an episode wherein Jerry dates a woman who seems to be perfect (smart, attractive, funny, friendly), but her own friends treat her like a total loser and act like Jerry is doing her a favour by going out with her. After George and Kramer meet her, they actually stage an intervention because they can clearly see something very wrong with the woman and think Jerry must be losing it to even consider giving her the time of day. Jerry is utterly baffled at what is so unappealing about her, and in his sheer desperation for somebody to approve of his relationship with this woman, he introduces her to his parents. They end up loving her... which causes Jerry to not like her anymore.
- Stranger Things: All the kids in the Party are this, being friendly, outgoing, and fairly good-looking, but are portrayed as unpopular teen outcasts, despite the fact that they have a tight-knit group of friends, support from their community, and most of them are in a relationship.
- Terriers: Much is made of Hank and Britt being immature manchildren who barely make a living. Despite this, they end up solving a large amount of interesting cases, sharing witty banter as they go.
- Time After Time: Jane says she's broken up with her last boyfriend, has mostly had bad luck with men and when she'd tried online dating was dismissed as being "mediocre". She instantly attracts the romantic attention of the handsome, charming H. G. This is not surprising, since she's a gorgeous, charming woman, making the above very difficult to swallow.
Newspaper Comics
- The title character in Dustin is referred to be rather good-looking, witty (or snarky) and is a college graduate. However, he also is a Basement-Dweller who wears cargo shorts most of the time.
Video Games
- Squall Leonhart from Final Fantasy VIII is to quote himself "an unfriendly, introverted guy." He's called a troublemaker by the faculty. He admits that this is a front he's put up to keep people from getting close to him. Midway through the game he gets surprised by a promotion to Commander which he thinks is ridiculous but quotes from his comrades and the school bulletin board shows that the entire school likes and respects him a great deal.
- Dante the main protagonist of the Devil May Cry franchise. He constantly struggles to make ends meet, is often the subject of mockery by his friends and has never been shown in a relationship. He's also an incredibly power half-demon and highly skilled in killing demons. And while he has never had a girlfriend in any of the games, it has been shown that this doesn't stop women from falling for him like Lucia in Devil May Cry 2 and it seems his lack of dating experience is by choice not because he is unappealing to women.
Web Original
- Blitzo from Helluva Boss is a seasoned gun-toting assassin, at one point dated a famous pop star, and is one of the few demons able to readily enter the mortal world by virtue of being on (very) good terms with one of the most powerful beings in Hell. But he's also a complete weirdo who typically garners minimal respect from even his own employees or his adoptive daughter, let alone most other people he's seen interacting with - the only people who do seem to like him either don't know him all that well or are just as weird as he is.
Western Animation
- Goof Troop:
- Max Goof, who had friends and a girl who liked him but also the occasional bully.
- Roxanne's friend Stacey from A Goofy Movie is an Inversion—she has large glasses and braces but is the most popular girl in school and the class president. The fact that Stacey is implied to be rich (enough to afford pay-per-view in The '90s at least) and throws awesome parties may have something to do with it.
- Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats: You'd think a guy like Riff-Raff would have it made, given he's acknowledged as one of the toughest cats in Westfinster, has good looks, street savvy enough that he's the leader of his own gang, and has a hottie like Cleo as his girlfriend. Yet, despite all that he has going for him, he's still a down-and-out alley cat who lives in a junkyard and his plans fail half the time because his gang is dimwitted.
- My Life as a Teenage Robot: In spite of being a robot superhero who also happens to be super sweet to just about everyone, Jenny is shown to be at the bottom of the social hierarchy at school and gets bullied fairly often. Interestingly, it's actually implied that the Crust Cousins are aware of the fact that Jenny should be popular and are in fact manipulating things to ensure that she never becomes more popular than them.
- The Simpsons: Bart Simpson gets this on the occasional episode. There's no doubt he's the coolest character on the show, but his popularity in school (or even with the rest of the town) runs the gamut from adored by everyone for how awesome he is, to being a loner whose only friend is Milhouse.
